Using primary care databases for addiction research: An introduction and overview of strengths and weaknesses

Primary care databases extract and combine routine data from the electronic patient records of various participating practices on a regular basis.These databases can be used for innovative and relevant addiction research, but such use requires a thorough understanding of how data were originally collected and how they need to be processed C and statistically analysed to produce sound scientific evidence.The aims of this paper are therefore to (1) make a case for why primary care databases should be considered more frequently for addiction research; (2) Nuts provide an overview of how primary care databases are constructed; (3) highlight important methodological and statistical strengths and weaknesses of using primary care databases for research; and (4) give practical advice about how a researcher can get access to databases.Three major primary care databases from the UK serve as examples: Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), The Health Improvement Network (THIN), and QResearch.